The Future of Consumerist

Over the last twelve years, Consumerist has been a steadfast proponent and voice on behalf of consumers, from exposing shady practices by secretive cable companies to pushing for action against dodgy payday lenders. Now, we’re joining forces with Consumer Reports, our parent organization, to cultivate the next generation of consumer advocacy.

Stay tuned as Consumerist’s current and future content finds its home as a part of the Consumer Reports brand. In the meantime, you can access existing Consumerist content below, and we encourage you to visit Consumer Reports to read the latest consumer news.

Our more body-conscious colleagues over at Consumer Reports Health have just released their ratings for a variety of diet programs and have rated Jenny Craig the highest, far ahead of runner-up Weight Watchers.

To come up with its ratings, CR Health looked at not just weight loss, but also each plans adherence to nutritional guidelines set forth by the 2010 U.S. Dietary Guidelines for Americans, and the plans’ long- and short-term drop-out rates.

It’s in this last category that the magazine says Jenny Craig really distinguished itself. The results of a 332-person, two-year study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that 92% of participants stuck with Jenny Craig for two years, with an an average weight loss of about 8%.

“The point of the report is to give dieters a side-by-side comparison of the main diet programs so they can choose for themselves,” said Nancy Metcalf, senior program editor, Consumer Reports Health. “Jenny Craig is worth considering, but if you don’t like the idea of eating prepackaged meals, it may not be the best option for you.”

The important thing to remember, explains Metcalf is that “the best diet is the one that you can stay on. Because if you can’t stick with it, then you won’t lose weight, nor will you be able to keep off any weight you do manage to lose.”

The full results of the ratings are available in the June issue of Consumer Reports.